Training guns on the Congress over its President Mallikarjun Kharge’s ‘venomous snake’ barb allegedly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday led an all-out attack on the party saying that its leaders have lost their minds.
Speaking at an election rally in Navalgund Assembly constituency in Dharwad, “Congress President Kharge (Mallikarjun Kharge) says our leader Modi, whom the whole world respects and welcomes, is like a venomous snake. I want to ask you, can you make the Congress party, which has compared Modi to a venomous snake, victorious in the election?”
“The same Congress gives the slogan ‘Modi teri khabar khudegi’, Sonia Gandhi says ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’, Priyanka Gandhi says ‘neechi jati ke log’ (people of low caste), and he (Kharge) says ‘Vishela Samp’ (venomous snake), Congress people, you have lost your mind. How much ever you abuse Modi, lotus will bloom,” Shah added in the poll-bound state where elections are due on May 10.
Kharge, addressing an election rally in Ron, Gadag district, said in Kannada, “Modi is like a poisonous snake. Don’t try to lick this snake to check whether it is venomous or not. If you taste it, you are dead.”
As political controversy erupted over his statement, the Congress president later clarified that he was not making a “personal attack on PM Modi”, but the “ideology” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Further, speaking about the complaint filed by Congress leaders against Shah against his alleged statement that the state would be “afflicted by riots” if the Congress is voted to power, the union home minister said, “They have filed it because I said we have banned PFI (Popular Front of India), we have made Karnataka safe. I don’t fear, I will say it once again that the BJP government by banning PFI has made Karnataka safe.”
“If you (Congress) have any objection, come and tell the people of Karnataka, why PFI should continue to function. The PFI killed our leader Praveen Nettaru and several of our youth, and were indulging in dividing the country….for the sake of vote bank politics, Congress had carried PFI on its head, but the Narendra Modi government put PFI leaders behind bars,” he added.
Shah also defended the Basavaraj Bommai-led Karnataka government’s decision to scrap the four per cent reservation for Muslims under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota and its distribution among the dominant and politically influential Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities.
“For the sake of vote bank politics, Congress leaders are saying that they will bring back 4 per cent Muslim reservation, I want to ask Congress whose quota they will reduce for this, whether Vokkaligas’ or Lingayats’ or SC/STs’ ?. BJP will not allow Muslim reservation to return in Karnataka. This is our promise to the people of Karnataka,” he said.